Ben B. Bodne, 88, President and Owner Of Algonquin Hotel

Ben B. Bodne, who was smitten with the Algonquin hotel on his honeymoon and returned to buy it, owning it for 41 years, died on Tuesday at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan. He was 88 years old and lived in the landmark Algonquin, at 59 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan.

He died of natural causes, his family said.

Mr. Bodne was president and owner of the hotel from 1946 until a subsidiary of the Aoki Corporation of Tokyo bought it in 1987 for $29 million. The hotel, which opened in 1902, was designated a landmark by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1987.

During his tenure, the hotel retained its reputation as a gathering place for celebrities, along with its charm of mahogany panels, deep-pile carpets and leather upholstery. But Mr. Bodne quietly modernized it.

Mr. Bodne and his new wife were star-struck on their first visit to the Algonquin in the 1920's. At lunch they spotted Will Rogers, whom they had seen the night before in the Ziegfeld Follies, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Sinclair Lewis, Eddie Cantor, Gertrude Lawrence and Beatrice Lillie. The young Mrs. Bodne joked that once her husband bought the baseball team he dreamed about, he should get her the hotel.

Although he was a sports buff -- he promoted boxers and considered bidding for the Pittsburgh Pirates -- he never got a ball team. But he did buy the 200-room Algonquin, for about $1 million. He promptly moved in.

Mr. Bodne was born in Shamokin, Pa. He started work at the age of 14 as a newsboy. Eventually he moved to Charleston, S.C., where he became successful as an oil distributor.

The Algonquin, on the edge of the Theater District between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas, was famed for its Round Table that drew Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Harold Ross, Franklin P. Adams, Edna Ferber and Alexander Woollcott, among others.

Mr. Bodne is survived by his wife of 67 years, the former Mary Mazo; two daughters, Renee Colby and Barbara Anspach, both of Manhattan; five grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.